Derek Alan Siddoway's Blog, page 9
January 26, 2014
Take Two
Hey all, I’m back for the second round to go head to head with the blog monster. As I was laying half-awake this morning, I had a hundred different awesome things I wanted to say. But, like most of the things I think of when I am half-asleep, (half-asleep and half-awake must be one of those glass half empty or half full things) all of my thoughts escaped me.
I have been thinking lately about the direction I want this blog to take. I want to write something outside of fiction that my readers will still enjoy, but I don’t want it to become a chore, for me to write or for you to read (I realize if it’s a chore you won’t be reading long anyway). I have a lot of things I want to talk about, but they cover a wide variety of topics. In our modern internet world of niche groups with specific interests, I’m sure I’ll turn off some people. With that being said, however, I want this blog to be founded on three things: my books, my writing (yes, they are different) and my experiences in the self-publishing world.
With that being said, let’s jump to a couple of things I mentioned from my first post. If you haven’t heard through social media, or from my last post, I am starting a newsletter as well. I am pleased to announce that I have everything set up and working for people to subscribe. You can do that here. Just so everyone knows, I’m not going to spam you or sell your email addresses to anyone who will. And since I’ll be writing books, you won’t be bombarded with newsletters on a weekly basis. Ideally, they will supplement the blog and also offer some cool, exclusive stuff when I’m close to releasing my next book.
As for my other promises, I want to talk a little bit about the prologue of Out of Exile. The prologue is written by a person called The Recorder, who is the narrator of the entire series. As you probably guessed if you’ve read it, he will make an appearance in later books, under a different name. Right now, all I will reveal is that he wasn’t in Out of Exile, and won’t make an appearance until book three (probably). Although his character has been a part of the series for some time, his role as The Recorder wasn’t added until the end of writing Out of Exile. Originally, the Tale of the White Knight was all packed into the prologue. I decided instead to weave it in with the main story and then change the prologue to an introductory reflection by the narrator. I felt this created a stronger flow to the overall story. It also allowed me to add some cool back stories to each book. When we get a little closer to publication, I’ll reveal the back story for book two.
In the meantime, if you enjoyed Out of Exile, I’d be very grateful if you’d tell a friend, tell me, or tell the world through a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble or Goodreads. As an indie author, honest reviews (you don’t have to sugarcoat things or pull any punches) are one of the most important pieces of letting others know about my books. I’ve included the links below, but please remember, you’re under no obligation!
Until next time!
♠ DAS ♠
January 9, 2014
Chapter One: In which I begin to blog
Well, I resisted the pull of the author blogosphere for two months but in the end, my conscience (or something like that) got a hold of me. The reason I haven’t been blogging up to this point is that A. I’d rather spend time writing the next book in the Teutevar Saga series and B. I’ve seriously doubted if I will keep up the blogging and not have stale, expired blog posts sitting around. Picture soured milk in a fridge that isn’t plugged in…nobody wants that. With that being said, I’ve been working hard this weekend to put together some awesome stuff for my fans (cue cricket sounds).
What I’ve decided to do is ration my extracurricular writing time between a blog and a newsletter. Combined, I’ll be sending these out once a week, alternating weeks between a bi-monthly blog post and a bi-monthly newsletter (sign up for that here and don’t, worry I won’t be distributing emails for a wealthy Arabian oil tycoon who wants to give you all his money). Additionally, I’ve put a cap at 500 words to keep you interested and me working on books. Someday, somewhere down the road I may increase this blog to say…three posts per month.(Haha!) Is it appropriate to say “haha” in a blog post? Fair warning:I enjoy writing things in parentheses. Confession: Like semicolons, I am not entirely sure I always use parentheses in the proper context that the English language dictates.
Right now, I’ve tackled Book Two (Sorry, no title yet. And sorry, parentheses again) with renewed vigor. With “gusto” one might say. I’m nearly 25,000 words in which, as of now, is about 1/5 of the total length I have planned for the rough draft. Out of Exile was just over 100,000 and there will definitely be a lot more going on in Book Two. My original goal of 125,000 words may be on the short side. We’ll still spend the majority of those words with Ravyn and other characters familiar from Out of Exile but I think you’ll also be surprised to see the new characters and points of view that will be told. I suspect Arund will show his face a little more frequently. I will also say that Ravyn ends up in Vhaldais for a large part of the book. He might even make it to Athelon itself if he doesn’t let Shamus and Brin get him in too much trouble.
In the meantime, before I sign off I want to collectively thank everyone who has finished reading or is currently reading Out of Exile. Your support is phenomenal and I hope you’ll stick around for the rest of the journey. Be on the lookout for for my next post and newsletter, I’ve got some exciting news to reveal and will also drop some information about a character you probably overlooked in Out of Exile.
– ♠ DAS ♠
